Equipment

Gloves, safety glasses, lab coats and masks are among the items Kingston University has donated to local NHS services to help protect front-line staff from coronavirus. The personal protective equipment, usually used in the University’s laboratories and workshops, has been packaged up and delivered to Kingston Health Centre and Kingston Hospital during the past few weeks. The University was initially approached by staff at Kingston Heath Centre in March to see if there was anything it could do to help protect them during the Covid-19 pandemic. Shortly after Kingston Council also got in touch to ask whether any PPE support could be provided to Kingston Hospital. Some 16,600 disposable gloves, 82 regular lab coats, 1,324 safety spectacles, 10 packs of overshoes and 54 disposable face masks were provided to NHS services in the borough, alongside eight specialist Howie lab coats, four disposable overalls, four full face shields and three particulate respirators.

As coronavirus spreads around the world, UCL experts are taking a prominent role in advancing public knowledge about the virus by advising world leaders, providing expert comment in the media and urgently researching new ways of tackling COVID-19.